Christmas Vacation

We spent Christmas this year at my parents' home in Minnesota. In many ways, it played out like a picture-perfect White Christmas, perhaps mingled with an occasional moment of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (picture Brian driving cross country w/a Santa Hat and channeling his inner Clark Griswold). Here is A Christmas Story, Howells-in-Minnesota style.

The Opening Credits
We did the roughly 18-hour trip in two days on the way out, driving through 4 states and 1100 miles with nary an incident. We spent the night in Council Bluffs Iowa, right across from the Missouri River. We really lucked out with weather and didn't see a flake of snow fall the entire drive there and back, for which we were immensely grateful. All of the children did fabulously. Actually, we all really like road trips, and have done this one a number of times. I'll sure credit the traveling DVD player with part of the success, but even Mason did amazing. The only incident was with my brother JJ who left just ahead of us and had a big blowout in the middle of Nebraska, so we caught up and rescued him for a couple of hours while his car got a new tire.

The Location
My parents live in a log home next to a National Forest in northern Minnesota, little more than an hour from the Canadian border. It's pretty there, but when you throw in the 50 inches of snow they have already received this winter (which will not melt until April or May), it was the perfect Christmas setting. It snowed lightly on an off the entire time we were there, and was also cloudy and grey almost the entire time, giving the whole area a frosty appearance. Pretty. Their home is just a few miles from the home I grew up in, so I always wax a bit nostalgic when I'm there. And the kiddos adore visiting grandma and grandpa.

The Cast of Characters
We have grown from 7 of us, to 20 (and counting, I'm sure). Here are the 9 grandchildren (Connor is the oldest, and for now, Mason is the youngest)-

with Grandma and Grandpa-
Most of the adults-
The supporting events
I went night-time snowshoeing with my mom and dad, which is why we are wearing head lamps. There is nothing like the sound of the woods on a winter evening. The hat I grabbed from my mom's winter items bin; my sisters later pointed out it has a lovely mushroom shape.

Much cousin time. The sauna (pronounced the correct way, as in sow-nuh, not saw-nuh please) serves as a great play spot when not in use-

cousin movie party/sleepover-
We spent a fabulous, frozen, FREE evening at Bentleyville Tour of Lights in Duluth. Super cool! It offers 3 million lights that luminate Bayfront Festival Park on the shores of Lake Superior, and is the largest holiday light show in the Midwest. Admission is free. It includes a 12-story tall steel Christmas tree that has 50,000 LED lights synchronized to music; the Bentleyville castle, which stands 24 feet high and 78 feet long; the Cookie House, which offers complimentary hot chocolate, coffee and cookies as they stroll through the park; a dazzling 500-foot lighted tunnel that leads to Santa; 15 fire pits for roasting marshmallows for s'mores; the Polar Popcorn Hut; local displays of the Aerial Lift Bridge, Tall Ships, a replicate of a thousand foot ore boat and Enger Tower (info from their Web site.) In addition to the popcorn, cookies, and hot chocolate, each child is given a candy cane, bag of cookies and a free stocking hat (which Isabel is wearing in a previous picture). It was awesome! Of course, it is tough to get good light pics, but it was beautiful.


Gingerbread cookie decorating with Grandma-

Sledding at home-

and at the golf course in town-A backyard fire and playing in the snow-

My mom threw a baby shower for my Aunt Meg, who is married to my mom's youngest brother Mike. Meg has a number of extremely challenging health problems, including lupus, and could not have children. After years of agonizing, they decided to go the surrogate route, and at the ages of 46 and 48, are becoming parents! Never thought I'd be getting a new cousin, so fun. So my grandma O'Neill is anticipating the birth of her 21st grand-child, after having 20 great-grandchildren! The group shot is Meg, my mom, my grandma, another aunt, several cousins, my sisters and sister-in-law and me.

Girls/Guys outings
My mom and sisters and I always do lunch and shopping, and had a blast as always. We had fun helping my mom shop for clothes for her new new volunteer job at the courthouse, and for my sister's student teaching. Then the guys went to True Grit, and by all reports it was a great movie.

The Main Event
Growing up, we opened gifts on Christmas Eve and then Santa brought one big unwrapped gift and filled our stocking, so that's what we did, much to Brian's chagrin, who feels very strongly about opening gifts on Christmas morning (which I am otherwise fine with).

Connor and his haul: Santa brought his first video game, which he has been asking for. You know me and video games. Or maybe you don't. Let's just say we don't mix. So we started small, with a Game Cube. Maybe someday we'll work up to a Wii. Maybe.


Isabel's haul. She loved her owl more than I imagined, and also likes her bike, despite her face. And she is modeling her new pettiskirt. Her favorite gift is a little interactive play aquarium called Fin Fin Friends, which is the only thing she repeatedly asked for.
Lucas woke up with a bad cough and fever on Christmas, poor guy. But still managed to have fun. He got some super fun gifts. Isn't he a dish in his new train engineer play outfit?
Mason's first Christmas!
The closing credits
We decided to push straight through and not stop at a hotel on the way back. 20 hours after leaving my parents we pulled into our driveway, at 6 a.m. This includes a 3-hour stop at the Mall of America, where we hit up the American Girl store, Lego store (which Brian said blows our Lego store out of the water), and Nickelodeon Universe, the indoor amusement park.

Above all, we paused to reflect upon the reason for this joyous time of year, Him whose birth brings light and joy and hope to all, even Jesus Christ our Savior. Because of Him, It's a Wonderful Life. Hope your Christmas was merry indeed.